The maze was not a doctor, nor was it a time machine. It was an upgrade at the cellular level — making the body faster, stronger, more vital.

Su Man’s hand would heal. Lu Yuwen’s foot would recover. Bai Youwei’s legs would walk normally. All of this was possible because the cells within each of them already carried the encoded information of a complete human body.

But Teacher Cheng was different. In the very instant he stepped out of the maze, his body’s cells had already undergone a transformation.

And the maze system, in its default state, did not recognize the changes to Teacher Cheng’s body as a defect. So even after undergoing the enhancement process, those mermaid traits remained on him — in fact, they had been further reinforced.

Once Bai Youwei worked all of this out, she was struck momentarily dumb.

She wouldn’t let Yu Chaohui’s words make her shoulder all the blame for what had happened to Teacher Cheng — but thinking about it more deeply, it left a distinctly hollow feeling in her chest.

What is honey to one is poison to another.

The same maze had given her a whole and healthy body. For Teacher Cheng, it had turned him into something no longer entirely human…

And this was only the beginning.

Things like this would likely happen again — perhaps more and more of them.

After all, not everyone regarded the games and the maze the way she did — as salvation.

What she depended on was precisely what they were trying to defeat.

The more Bai Youwei dwelled on it, the more tangled her thoughts became. Rather than face it, she retreated from the thought entirely and forced herself to stop.

She climbed up and down, steadily adding height to the staircase. Block by block, the structure grew taller, and the chandelier grew closer.

For her, a game like this was frankly child’s play.

When Bai Youwei finally stood at the highest point and stepped with ease into the chandelier’s disc — taking the gift box in hand — she cast a sweeping, contemptuous glance down at the rabbit-headed Inspector. Utterly imperious.

The rabbit-headed Inspector gave a small smile.

“Open it,” it said. “See what your reward is.”

Bai Youwei opened the gift box at the Inspector’s words — and found a pair of shoes inside.

Brown leather flats.

Bai Youwei couldn’t help but frown.

She reached in and pulled out the shoes. Not a single recognition sparked in her mind — it was just a pair of shoes.

Just a pair of ordinary shoes. Not a game item at all!

Bai Youwei’s frown deepened considerably.

“Put them on.” The rabbit-headed Inspector smiled pleasantly. “For the young lady who has no shoes.”

Bai Youwei: “……”

She very much wanted to complain — but then again, the game’s difficulty had been hardly anything to speak of, so she supposed she’d let it go…

With a feeling of mild grievance, she put on the leather flats.

The style was simple, but they looked polished and put-together on her feet, and would go with practically anything.

Just then, she heard the rabbit-headed Inspector ask: “How did you feel about this game?”

Bai Youwei, wearing the delicate leather flats, made her way unhurriedly down. “How would I feel about it? It was a puzzle game that required building blocks together — testing cooperation and teamwork. Three people would be the ideal number… Building all of this alone took way too much effort.”

The Inspector looked up at her, smiling. “In the official version of this game, there are far more players — and far fewer blocks.”

Bai Youwei froze. “Why would—”

If there weren’t enough blocks, then how could anyone possibly…

“Look at what’s beneath your feet,” the Inspector said softly.

Bai Youwei looked down — and the color drained from her face in an instant!

Beneath her feet, at some point without her noticing, the blocks had transformed into human bodies!

What she was standing on was not a staircase of blocks. It was a staircase of stacked corpses!

Bai Youwei’s body swayed. She lifted one foot and held it suspended in the air, unable to bring it back down. If she were to step barefoot on these bodies beneath her, she would likely scream out loud!

On the verge of losing her balance, the rabbit-headed Inspector soared up through the air and steadied her with one hand, its voice gentle: “You must grow accustomed to them. They are nothing more than the stepping stones along your path to the top.”

Bai Youwei’s breath came sharp and rapid, her back drenched in cold sweat!

The Inspector’s voice grew softer still: “If you cannot reach the top, then you will only become someone else’s stepping stone. Bai Youwei — do you want to be trampled underfoot?”

Bai Youwei went rigid. She slowly turned her head to look at the rabbit-headed Inspector.

It smiled, took her hand, and guided her steadily, carefully downward.

“You know how to choose, don’t you?”

—